You certainly don’t need to eat anywhere
else these days. East London has long been home to the best (and most
affordable) global cuisine. You want to best lamb sheesh kebab? Ask the Turkish
chefs at Mangal2, an ocakbasi restaurant on Arcola Street in Dalston. The best
Indian? Try the kadhai gosht at Needoo in Whitechapel. The best bánh mì
baguette? Try Kêu! On Old Street, a funky canteen that’s a neat update of the
Vietnamese restaurants that line Shoreditch’s Kingsland Road.
the
Vietnamese restaurants that line Shoreditch’s Kingsland Road
Meanwhile, a new wave of East London
restaurants has taken things upmarket – without compromising on the area’s
bohemian charm. Adventurous dining no longer means asking the guy at the kebab
shop for extra chilli sauce. Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes serves molecular
gastronomy in unpretentious surroundings at Viajante in Bethnal Green – how
does squid ink porridge with basil oil and squid sous-vide sound?
The
Rialto Bridge
Or try Ombra Bar and Restaurant, a
Venetian-style bacaro that has become the favourite lunch spot of the artists and
gallerists who inhatbit Vyner Street in Hackney. Don’t expect airs and graces;
the wine comes in tumblers, the bread comes in paper bags, and the menu is two
of three items chalked up on a board. However, the welcome is hearfelt and the
waitress charming. After a couple of Negroni cocktails, even the humble old
Regent’s Canal begins to look as romantic as the Rialto.
East London has also become home to a new
breed of distinctly English restaurateurs. Jamie Oliver, the now-unbiquitous TV
chef, was ahead of the curve when he opened his restaurant, Fiffteen, in Hoxton
in 1998. Since then, the revolution in British cooking has exploded eastwards.
Fergus Henderson’s bone marrow on toast, which he serves up at two of his St
JOHN restaurants in Farringdon and Spitalfields, has become a legend in its own
right. Or try the meat platters at Brawn, a 21st-century take on the
pub near Columbia Road flower market.
Perhaps the area’s culinary credentials are
best expressed at breakfast (it in Britain’s great contributon to world
cuisine, after all_. Albion is a loving homage to the working men’s cafés of
old, right down to the tomato-shaped ketchup dispensers. The ‘Full English’ –
bacon, sausage, baked beans, black pudding, grilled tomato, mushrooms, eggs,
toast and a cup of milky tea – is the most appropriate order.
Albion is a venue in Boundary, a project by
the influential London designer and restaurateur Terence Conran. It also houses
elegant hotel rooms and a terrific rooftop bar – and is an excellent starting
point for an urban exploration. It is located right at the intersection of the
financial centre of the City of London and the creative hub of Shoreditch,
opposite a line of ‘pop-up’ shops in shipping containers, next to an urban
driving range and just round the corner from hip members’ club Shoreditch
House. This merging of worlds is a particularly east London dynamic.
the
Golden Heart
If you travel south from Boundary Street
down Shoreditch High Street and turn off just before you hit the skyscrapers of
the City, you’ll find Spitalfields Market. The distinctive geometry of Nicholas
Hawksmoor’s Christ Church Spitalfields stands at the end of Brushfield Road,
just next to the Golden Heart, the favoured pub of Britart star Tracey Emin.
There remains a Dickensian feel – adroitly conjured by the Jack the Ripper
tour-guides who circulate the area, telling of the brutal murders that took
place in these streets in the 19th century.
Brick
Lane, junction with Princelet Street, E1
Stroll at your own pace and you see the
imprints of successive generations of enterprise. French Huguenot silk weavers
settled here in the 18th century – their influence is seen in the
beautiful houses on Princelet Street. When they had made their money and moved
on, in came the Jewish traders, followed later by Bengali immigrants, who
turned nearby Brick Lane into a miniature Bangla-town. Soon after them came the
clubbers who still spill out of The Vibe Bar and 93 Feet East, and then came
the gleaming steel and glass of capital as the City encroached. The result is
eclectic – and surprisingly tranquil on a Saturday afternoon.
There is still a traditional traders’
market from Tuesday to Friday, where earthy stall – halders hawk antiques,
trinkets and, increasingly, delicious artisanal food. The surrounding shops
provide many excellent places to pick up some traditional British threads too –
the dapper gentlemen of DS Dundee have put a particularly cool spin on British
heritage fabrics.
Hoxton
square
If you return to Shore ditch High Street
and continue in the opposite direction, you’ll find yourself in Hoxton. This
was the first district of East London really to make a name for itself in the
late ‘90s, its reputation assured when gallerist Jay Jopling opened White Cube
on Hoxton Square – Britart names like Damien Hirst, Raquib Shaw , and Jake and
Dinos Chapman have exhibited there ever since.
